Cruelty Free, Sustainable living

Blog 3: Adopt, don’t shop!

With all of the news around homeless animal shelters becoming over crowded, and in the United States we have seen the controversial decision to euthanise animals that have ‘out stayed their welcome’-so to speak, why is it we still see hundreds of adverts for puppies, kittens, kits (baby rabbits) and so on, for sale?

Surely if we have so many animals waiting for a home, intentionally breeding your animals to have even more is irresponsible? A lot of these are bread for their own financial gain, but should we really be forcing animals to have babies only for them to be taken away from their mothers for a bit of money on the side?

I even read that black cats are the least adopted of all cats, because of their inability to take the perfect “selfie” with. Can you believe that an animal isn’t considered worthy of a home because they won’t provide vanity-inducing content for peoples social media accounts?

Footage of behind the scenes in puppy farms has exposed the careless, irresponsible and cruel industry it is. The owners don’t care about the creature’s wellbeing; they only care about making as much money as possible. Animal rescue shelters care about the animals, and make sure the home they are going to is stable, suitable and loving.

I recently adopted two cats; one from the RSPCA and one from The Blue Cross, and I was so impressed by the care and love they had for each and every animal under their watch. They made sure our home was in the right area; we were around enough to take care of them, and even so far as to coming out to visit and assess our house was suitable for them.

These rescue centres provide so much love and care for these animals, and their hard work should be rewarded by seeing each and every one of their animals go to a happy home.

One of my favourite places i’ve seen was in Rome, Italy. Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary is in the centre of Rome, and is a square of ancient ruins. You can’t actually go in it because it’s solely for the many homeless cats living in rome. It’s their safe place to go and relax knowing no one can harm them. The dedicated volunteers provide full veterinary care for all of the cats, and run an adoption centre for some of the cats capable of being re-homed.

If you ever find yourself in Rome, I would highly recommend a visit. We had a lovely volunteer show us around the inside where all of their blind/deaf/three or even two legged cats are looked after. You can tell they all work here purely driven by their love for these creatures.

If we stopped buying pets from breeders and awful puppy farms, more of these animals in shelters at risk of losing their lives will be given the home they’ve always wanted. This could also lead to a decrease in the amount of breeders selling their animals offspring.

With that in mind, many first time pet owners would prefer to get a young animal rather than an older one, but what they don’t realise is that an older pet is a good animal to start with. They are generally more relaxed, less energetic and are happy to sit with you and provide companionship. Who wouldn’t want that?!

The ‘Adopt, don’t shop’ campaign has been backed by many celebrities and is getting a lot of coverage over the last year or so, with so many scared and unhappy animals just waiting to have a family, this movement needs to be accepted by all.